RPG Evolution: The Trouble with Halflings

Over the decades I've developed my campaign world to match the archetypes my players wanted to play. In all those years, nobody's ever played a halfling.

Picture courtesy of Pixabay.​

So What's the Problem?​

Halflings, derived from hobbits, have been a curious nod to Tolkien's influence on fantasy. While dwarves and elves have deep mythological roots, hobbits are more modern inventions. And their inclusion was very much a response to the adventurous life that the agrarian homebodies considered an aberration. In short, most hobbits didn't want to be adventurers, and Bilbo, Frodo, and the others were forever changed by their experiences, such that it was difficult for them to reintegrate when they returned home. You don't hear much about elves and dwarves having difficulty returning home after being adventurers, and for good reason. Tolkien was making a point about the human condition and the nature of war by using hobbits as proxies.

As a literary construct, hobbits serve a specific purpose. In The Hobbit, they are proxies for children. In The Lord of the Rings, they are proxies for farmers and other folk who were thrust into the industrialized nightmare of mass warfare. In both cases, hobbits were a positioned in contrast to the violent lifestyle of adventurers who live and die by the sword.

Which is at least in part why they're challenging to integrate into a campaign world. And yet, we have strong hobbit archetypes in Dungeons & Dragons, thanks to Dragonlance.

Kender. Kender Are the Problem​

I did know one player who loved to play kender. We never played together in a campaign, at least in part because kender are an integral part of the Dragonlance setting and we weren't playing in Dragonlance. But he would play a kender in every game he played, including in massive multiplayers like Ultima Online. And he was eye-rollingly aggravating, as he loved "borrowing" things from everyone (a trait established by Tasselhoff Burrfoot).

Part of the issue with kender is that they aren't thieves, per se, but have a child-like curiosity that causes them to "borrow" things without understanding that borrowing said things without permission is tantamount to stealing in most cultures. In essence, it results in a character who steals but doesn't admit to stealing, which can be problematic for inter-party harmony. Worse, kender have a very broad idea of what to "borrow" (which is not limited to just valuables) and have always been positioned as being offended by accusations of thievery. It sets up a scenario where either the party is very tolerant of the kender or conflict ensues. This aspect of kender has been significantly minimized in the latest draft for Unearthed Arcana.

Big Heads, Little Bodies​

The latest incarnation of halflings brings them back to the fun-loving roots. Their appearance is decidedly not "little children" or "overweight short people." Rather, they appear more like political cartoons of eras past, where exaggerated features were used as caricatures, adding further to their comical qualities. But this doesn't solve the outstanding problem that, for a game that is often about conflict, the original prototypes for halflings avoided it. They were heroes precisely because they were thrust into difficult situations and had to rise to the challenge. That requires significant work in a campaign to encourage a player to play a halfling character who would rather just stay home.

There's also the simple matter of integrating halflings into societies where they aren't necessarily living apart. Presumably, most human campaigns have farmers; dwarves and elves occupy less civilized niches, where halflings are a working class who lives right alongside the rest of humanity in plain sight. Figuring out how to accommodate them matters a lot. Do humans just treat them like children? Would halflings want to be anywhere near a larger humanoids' dwellings as a result? Or are halflings given mythical status like fey? Or are they more like inveterate pranksters and tricksters, treating them more like gnomes? And if halflings are more like gnomes, then why have gnomes?

There are opportunities to integrate halflings into a world, but they aren't quite so easy to plop down into a setting as dwarves and elves. I still haven't quite figured out how to make them work in my campaign that doesn't feel like a one-off rather than a separate species. But I did finally find a space for gnomes, which I'll discuss in another article.

Your Turn: How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[Maxperson]

You're bit overthinking the premise.

My point is that halfling racial traits are mostly hard to use as NPCs and enemies and sometimes negative for enemies.

• Ability Score Increase DEX+2. OK. This is good. DEX is a great stat and boost offence defense and utility.

Yep. Good stuff.

• Small Size. Mosy negative. Restricts NPC weapon choices. Keeps with finding hiding spots but with "Hide as a bonus Action" you can only do it once.

Once a round is better than no times a round. It's pretty good.

• Speed Down. Pure Negative.

Sure, but this is minor.

• Lucky.Takes 20 rolls to trigger. NPCs without names and not solos don't get 20 rolls.

This is not true. Since it can trigger on the very first roll it doesn't require 20 rolls to trigger. It only averages once out of 20 rolls. Nothing says that it won't happen on the first or third roll.

• Brave.Mostly useless. PCs don't use fear often and not every class has access to it.

Not everything in an NPC block has to be useful. I'll give examples.

Looking at the Deva, it has commune and detect evil and good. Mostly useless spells in an encounter. It's immune to exhaustion, but PCs don't generally cause NPCs to become exhausted.

Randomly going to F, I see that faerie dragons have the mostly useless ability to use telepathy with one another. Only useful if in multiples and even then it's of extraordinarily limited use as I'm not going to have telepathic conversations with myself.

And so on. Lots and lots and lots of NPCs and monsters have useless or nearly useless abilities. Why should halflings be different?

• Halfling Nimbleness Again mostly useless for NPCs

You're kidding, right? The ability to move through hostile creature to get to better tactical position is pretty good.

• Ability Score Increase CHA +1. If the halfling isn't a spellcaster, they mostly won't be able to use this. CHA saving throws are rare.

When I'm describing an NPCs I will inform the players if an NPC is unusually charismatic. It affects their roleplay, so this is a very important feature for NPCs.

• Naturally Stealthy. Firecall Bait. Use of this typiclly requires crowding with other medium sized allies. Good for PCs as monsters don't all have AOE. But bad for monsters as PCs often have AOE.

If PCs are around then AOE can hit them as well. Further, if the halfling is a rogue, which many are, this becomes a very good damage dealing ability.

• Ability Score Increase CON +1. Ok. Nice. Adds a few HPs.

Yep.

• Stout Resilience. Poison is already a bad resist as PCs tend to shy away from it as many monsters are immune. But a resist is a resist.

It's decent.

 

[Maxperson]

My point is that the halfling doesn't synergize with how NPCs and Enemy Monsters play.

Yes. Yes they do. You just have to prepare for it. If you randomly match a halfling up to some other monster, chances are it won't mesh well. That's true for most monsters, though.

 

[Zubatcarteira]

Bandit halflings, I imagine them pretending to be children asking for money, then they shank you when you got your guard down.

 

[Minigiant]

1. That is almost nothing like what this whole thread is about.

Isn't it.

Isn't the point of the point of the thread that lorewise Halfling NPCs are sort of redundant with Rural Human NPCs. And that some settings attempt to differentiate them by either making them annoying (Kender) or boxing humans out that realm (Hobbits).

Then mechanically, halfling traits dont trigger enough to create memories in the short time PCs interact with them. This means DMs are forced to fudge or set up contrived instances for halfling traits to shine. Outside of their houses being small (even though their ceilings tend to be high to accommodate the big folk)

2. Basically nothing in your post related to their racial traits indicated any understanding for how those traits could interact with the physical environment of the world around them. As baddies, you play them like Tuckers Kobolds. In an urban environment, they'd do better than most of the small races when used that way.

5e Halflings wouldn't have Tucker Kobolds because 5e lore designs them for comfort and relying on the big folk for defense.

The point is not that Halflings can't be made into interesting PCs, NPCs, and enemies.
The point is the 5e mechanics and lore don't lean to them being interesting NPCs and monsters and llow them to easily integrate them into the setting. So you are forced to change halflings away from the 5e defaults.

So How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

 

[Neonchameleon]

You're bit overthinking the premise.

If putting literally two minutes of thought into how a concept that you personally brought up is "overthinking the premise" then I'm glad I do not play in your campaign world.

My point is that halfling racial traits are mostly hard to use as NPCs and enemies and sometimes negative for enemies.

And as @James Gasik points out you do not have to use the racial traits for PC races for all NPCs. So this is pretty much irrelevant.

• Small Size. Mosy negative. Restricts NPC weapon choices. Keeps with finding hiding spots but with "Hide as a bonus Action" you can only do it once.

Mostly positive. It gives the halflings ways to do things that normal people can't. Like not crawl in small spaces or squeeze through tiny ones. It only fractionally lowers their damage - but as NPCs go this makes them more interesting and leads to a whole lot of easy ways for them to cause shenanigans.

• Speed Down. Pure Negative.

Mostly irrelevant. You only really need it in a foot race - and either halflings have failed or they should be taking shortcuts. A positive as far as it makes for the necessity for them to behave like halflings while not mattering much 90% of the time. Only technically a negative - and a definite positive in their own environments.

• Halfling Nimbleness Again mostly useless for NPCs

Except NPCs in some of the right environments for halflings. It adds to the overall effect where halflings can struggle a bit outside their favourite environments but can be really impressive inside them. Take them on in their homes and you'd better be small because small is a huge advantage. Take them on in bustling towns and cities and once again they will go where you can't or go effortlessly where you struggle to go.

• Stout Resilience. Poison is already a bad resist as PCs tend to shy away from it as many monsters are immune. But a resist is a resist.

And spot how you cherry-picked the less popular halfling subrace.

For Mooks Pretty bad.

Fine. Mooks shouldn't be caring about a whole collection of special rules and as far as I know no one's mooks use all the racial rules. Halfling mooks are small and nimble. This is all they need.

For Elites and Solos. Mostly a wash

In other words they are fine. You just insist on using player-facing rules in a way they weren't intended to be used. Once again this isn't a problem with the halfling race.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

Halflimgs can be enemies.

The probl is they duck as them

I have a criminal organization in my setting with one of the head families being Halflings. The gang founder was best friends with a halfing and the two families are partners in crime.

But halflings enemies are #$&@.

They die before Lucky procs.
PCs don't use fear effects often.
And hiding within human spaces scream 2 for 1 Fireball Special.

And roleplay, they are just another crime family. But weaker.

I’m sorry but that’s on you.

PCs feat halfling enemies in my game almost as much as gnome enemies.

 

[Minigiant]

Yes. Yes they do. You just have to prepare for it. If you randomly match a halfling up to some other monster, chances are it won't mesh well. That's true for most monsters, though.

Of course.

But that is my point.
You more or less have to discard 5e's default lore and mechanics to do so.

It's not halflings that are hard to integrate. It's the base Hallfling lore, PHB mechanics, and DMG mechanics that are.
It's all weak, redundant, or too rare to display.

5e base halfling are not Tucker's Halflings nor 4e style Ninja-Knights.

And as @James Gasik points out you do not have to use the racial traits for PC races for all NPCs. So this is pretty much irrelevant.

Exactly. The 5e base stuff is near unusable.

 

[Gammadoodler]

Isn't it.

Isn't the point of the point of the thread that lorewise Halfling NPCs are sort of redundant with Rural Human NPCs. And that some settings attempt to differentiate them by either making them annoying (Kender) or boxing humans out that realm (Hobbits).

Then mechanically, halfling traits dont trigger enough to create memories in the short time PCs interact with them. This means DMs are forced to fudge or set up contrived instances for halfling traits to shine. Outside of their houses being small (even though their ceilings tend to be high to accommodate the big folk)


5e Halflings wouldn't have Tucker Kobolds because 5e lore designs them for comfort and relying on the big folk for defense.

The point is not that Halflings can't be made into interesting PCs, NPCs, and enemies.
The point is the 5e mechanics and lore don't lean to them being interesting NPCs and monsters and llow them to easily integrate them into the setting. So you are forced to change halflings away from the 5e defaults.

So How have you integrated halflings into your campaign world?

You gotta pick a thing you're talking about. Because until this moment your interactions with @Neonchameleon were related to halflings as enemies. It was a discussion based, near as I can tell, purely on mechanics, which hasn't been the point of this thread.

5e lore, as far as I'm aware says nothing with respect to how halfling antagonists should work. If you choose to play them smoking contentedly in otherwise empty, easily accessible, "hideouts", that makes them incompetent, not "halfling". Maybe consider having them invest some level of effort toward self-preservation for themselves and their criminal associates.

 

[Minigiant]

You gotta pick a thing you're talking about. Because until this moment your interactions with @Neonchameleon were related to halflings as enemies. It was a discussion based, near as I can tell, purely on mechanics, which hasn't been the point of this thread.

5e lore, as far as I'm aware says nothing with respect to how halfling antagonists should work. If you choose to play them smoking contentedly in otherwise empty, easily accessible, "hideouts", that makes them incompetent, not "halfling". Maybe consider having them invest some level of effort toward self-preservation for themselves and their criminal associates.

I'm talking bout both.

The 5e base lore makes halflings both not desire leadership positions and clout, empathize rustic comfort, and mostly defer to the big races to handle major economic, government, and war affairs.

This means as NPCs, their areas would not have many ammentiies, lores, services, and luxuries as other races fr an adventuring party. The dwarves would have great smiths for armor and weapon upgrades and fine mercs. The elves would have arcane and druidic knowledge, fine armors, blades, and bows. The gnomes would have experimental gadgets,illusion lore, beasts, and magical items. Even a dragonborn quarter would have a nice picking of mercenaries to cover your back in the quest against EVAL!

But the halfling village is just a human village but smaller. The innkeeper, the mayor, and the barkeep might be ex-badasses but that's it.

As for as enemies, halfling are so lowkey, comfortable, and reliant on the other races that they wont tailor their areas enough to take extreme advantage of their features. Not on their own. They wouldn't run the organization and allow their other races in the group tailor it to to their own traits as long as the halflings are accommodated and feel comfortable.

The 5e base halfling lore prevents hallings from maxmizing their niche mechanics.

 

[doctorbadwolf]

I mean, what makes a Human a better enemy? Heavy weapons? I could take this guy here, make him a Halfling, and he...loses some speed. That's it.

View attachment 254991
In fact, to my amusement, he's even already Brave!

Not only that, but he gains the ability to nat1 very rarely, is 3 foot tall (use the cover rules, folks.), probably can hide behind bigger allies, or if not sneaky could easily be riding an armored mastiff, etc.

Use him like you would any human, and yeah he’s just a slightly slower human that almost never wiffs hard at a crucial moment. Use him like a 3 foot tall fearless warrior who knows how to fight bigger enemies, and he will shine.